Dan Price

There I was sitting at my keyboard, practicing with my ear buds, when suddenly the right channel goes silent. "Stupid plug," I thought as I reached to the back of the keyboard to fiddle with the angle of the plug in the headphone jack. But to my surprise, it didn't come back. But the left side started cutting in and out as I wiggled it. Hmm. I hoped it wasn't a problem with the jack...

So I went to find my old cheap thin-band-over-the-head foam-covered style headphones that used to come with the first Walkmans. I tried them, and they worked. So good, it wasn't the jack. But bad, it was the brand new ear buds. :(

As if that's not bad enough, the cord on the cheap headphones was too short to reach from the keyboard to my head, so I couldn't practice with them.

And my semi-good foam-cup style headphones that actually sound the best and DO have a cord long enough are currently strapped to my telephone waiting to answer the next telemarketer. But besides that, the skin on the foam has been flaking off lately and it leaves these little black pieces of plastic all over.

Audiophile? Me? Noooooooo....

Advent makes a higher-grade set very similar, but in my opinion they're not really worth the extra money. These ones are quite comfortable, sound great (and I put them through the ringer, too...I have them plugged into my bass amp :) ) and they're wireless, so you don't have to worry about practicing through cords and getting all twisted up.

More affordably, a set of THESE! will sound quite good, and regularly go on sale for about $20.

Re: Audiophile? Me? Noooooooo....

Actually, I think I need something between those two. Wireless doesn't seem all that important to me since the wires don't get in the way at all if they're long enough to fall straight down. I might be more bothered by batteries that need replacing or recharging. How long do they last, anyway? And does the base need power too?

I'm not sure if I want an open- or closed-back design, or even around- vs. against-the-ear. I want good sound (duh) but I don't want my outer ear to start hurting from the pressure after wearing them for too long. Plus, maybe I don't want perfect sound quality if my synth is actually producing imperfect sound. ;)

All I know is that I don't like the headphones Borders uses at their CD stations. They sound like an 8bit 4KHz sound clip. I'm sure they're intentionally cheap though.

I guess I'll just browse around Best Buy... hopefully they have some on display to try out. That's their philosophy anyway, right? :)

Re: Audiophile? Me? Noooooooo....

Not sure what you mean by "In Between the two." The Koss lightweights are some of the most comfortable best-sounding headphones I've ever heard, and they're light and very comfortable...and even at $40, a screamin' deal.

AS for the wireless...once you go wireless, you don't go back. The ones I showed you come with a couple rechargable AA bateries and a charging wire that plugs into the base, which plugs into the wall. So when you're done playing, you just plug them into the base, and they're ready to go for the next time. I've never had a charge die in the middle of playing...the instructions say they last about 8 on hours.

Re: Audiophile? Me? Noooooooo....

From reading the info, I was just about sold on the Jensen JF40. But then I read some reviews on it and the main complaint was that the sound leaks out with the open-back design, so people can hear what you're listening to. Well that's a major concern for me because it's the whole reason I'm wearing headphones to play piano in the first place - so my roommates don't need to hear it.

So then I looked at the JF25 which has a closed-back design but its specs weren't as good... higher impedance, which I assume means it takes more power to drive them? Another issue I saw in reviews was that some headphones don't work with the new power-conscious portable devices because they require too much power to drive them, so you can't get it loud enough.

Well anyway, I went to Best Buy and looked at their selection. Sadly, they don't have models on display to hear what they sound like. But I found that they had two versions of the JF25, under the same shelf label... one of them had the specs I read online, but the other had the specs of the JF40. That seemed perfect to me, so I got them.

They're crap.

They suffer from the resonance problem I read about so much in the reviews of closed-back designs. It sounds like having tin cans strapped to your ears.

So I guess I'll try to return them. I dunno what their policy is on headphones that are opened. It doesn't fall under any category described on the back of the receipt.

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I found with the buds I had that the sound quality changed dramatically depending on how far into the ear I pushed them, and I'd have to fiddle with them to get them at the same positions so that the stereo sound would seem to be in the center of my head. Plus they left indentations inside my ear that itched.

First of all....why don't you just stop bugging the F***ing Telemarketers and just stop answering the phone? Huh? Don't answer that... :-P

Second of all, anything KOSS kicks ass. You can get a good pair of KOSS headsets from anywhere from $5.99- $15.99 at Wal*Mart or K-Mart. Nothing fancy, but all models have a LIFE TIME WARRANTY!!! I've sent mine back about, 3 times(in the last 5 years) and gotten BRAND NEW head sets.

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Cool. Yeah, Jeremy recommended those Koss ones at Radio Shack. I went to the store and looked for them, but there was nothing there with the Koss name on it. As with everything else, it's all Radio Shack's name or the one or two brands they own/endorse/whatever.

But I found ones that looked just like the Koss ones online and were the same price. I got one of the commissionees to let me try them out on one of their keyboards, and they sounded good, so I got them.

Oh, and while I was in the store, a monsoon passed through outside. The sky opened up and the air turned a hazy orange and the wind was blowing like crazy. People in the store decided to browse around a bit longer. :)